I finally finished watching this documentary (or should I say I finally made the time to sit down and absorb the last half hour of it) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Being able to sit and listen to the Doktor elucidate on a variety of topics was wonderful. I'll never have the chance to meet Dr. LaVey, but it's documentaries such as this which allow me to sit and listen to the Doktor speak.

Seeing early footage of Magus Gilmore, Magistra Barton, Diabolos Rex, and others was also wonderful. The way Magus Gilmore holds himself, his manner of dress also, was very cool to see.

Watching the Doktor play his beloved keyboards, seeing inside the Den of Iniquity, and a quick perusal of the library, all these things, to me, make this documentary a historical gem.

I'm wondering how many others have seen this and what are your views on it?

The quality of the video made it sound just awful, and it lasted much too long!

I sat there and just enjoyed the music, I wasn't expecting to observe anything more than the Dr. LaVey playing keyboards. The music is supposed to evoke emotions, etc., and if it evoked boredom in you, then I guess that it was successful in some way!

I think you have to realize that the video was made in 1993, almost 20 years ago now. So, quality wise, it's not going to stand side by side with Blu-ray or even DVD and look anything like those two formats.

Much in the same way as I don't expect to take away the same thing from literature that was published decades ago (because I'm 25 years old), I was raised in a completely different context with different ways of appreciating things, so while I wouldn't class it as a visual masterpiece, I see it as archival footage and of great importance to those who are looking to devour everything available about Satanism.

Poorly done? Are you one of those under 30, celphone of the minute type kids with a short attention span if things don't have car chases, ipods or explosions?

Speak of the Devil was, and is, a milestone in documentaries about Anton LaVey. Material is so hard to come by that to denigrate this in any way is unfounded in it's ridiculousness.

Granted, it's no Citizen Kane, but it's not meant to be. The wealth of it's subject matter is unparalleled, as well as being a wonderful time capsule of an era where documentaries of this type just did not exist.

I like the song that plays at the end credits of the video, does it have a name/can it be found outside this video?

Yes, it's "Mazurka From Masquerade" from the Georges Montalba 1958 album (A Hi-Fi Fantasy in) Pipe Organ and Percussion. This was a recording that got quite a cult following, but was finally released on CD combining that album and the other known Montalba recording, Pipe Organ Favorites. You can usually find it on eBay or buy a downloaded copy from Amazon.com.

It's widely believed that the organ player (or at least one of them) featured is in fact Anton LaVey, especially when you hear the particular phrasing. It wasn't unusual in those days for labels to pay a session musician a flat fee to record some stuff in the studio, then secretly release the recording under some pseudonym. Unfortunately, the moron who released the music on CD couldn't bear to believe that the music he loved could have been made by the founder of the Church of Satan, so he let his self-righteousness get the better of him, and printed some highly bogus liner notes, later debunked by Magistra Blanche Barton.

I grew up on caffeine, movies filled with explosions, and shitty music, and I thought Speak of the Devil was excellent. It was the first time I ever got to actually see full video sequences of Doktor LaVey in my life. Reading a book is one thing, but once you see and hear the man who wrote it it changes how you read the book.

His keyboard playing is the shit. Don't talk shit about it. Being a drummer, I was beaming when he referred to drums as being musical instruments, and that he didn't use that term lightly. It completely changed my approach to the instrument.

There's a lot of stuff I enjoy that older members would probably say is crap, it's called ECI. But if you have genuine interest in how things developed, and why they are important to you, you will appreciate those who have come before.

You will know the older musicians, like Doktor LaVey, and at the very least appreciate them.

Technically that's all you have to do to be on the right track. But I go further. The pieces he played in that sequence were excellent to say the least, and it was not long enough. I aspire to be the best I can be, which includes adopting role models such as Doktor LaVey.

There are those who would say that this kind of attitude is what makes people think the CoS is a cult of personality. I say those people are retards. The man deserves respect.

HS!

_________________________
"Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris; not the end." --Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock in The Undiscovered Country

"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house." --George Carlin, Playin' With Your Head

"[There is] no contradiction between saying 'evolution has no purpose' and 'organisms have purposes'; just different vocabularies for different levels of description." --Sean Carroll

More seriously, I loved it. The sound and video quality never occurred to me while watching it and thinking back, I'd say it added to the underground vintage mood. We see so much in that film it's astonishing that it's not part of the canon itself. It's also entertainment for any Satanist the way LOTR was for fans of the books, you see what you read about over and over for ages. SEE the Docktor play calliope! SEE Togare the lion! SEE the original AHCs! SEE the Black House!

I must say the film by any cinematic standards is not at all poorly done. The editing, and editing is 99% of documentary film, is brilliant. Talking heads and Al Gore powerpoint presentations are not documentaries- This was. Agent Moore said it was no Citizen Kane, I'd say it's a solid On the Waterfront, or The Graduate at least. Much better than Satanis.

Napalm Nick also brought up a good point and that's the cult of personality. Few hate LaVey-worship more than I do. Those twits who buy chunks of his bathtub on eBay need to get a friggin life. Indeed the idea of watching a man play music for 15 minutes because I live by his books might sound slightly slightly down that road- IF he weren't really damn good. LaVey is very good. The guy who started this thing of ours was easily worth an hour and a half.

That's exactly how I felt while watching it. It was a glimpse at what it would've been like to meet the Doktor.

I was thrilled when I learned Nick Bougas directed it. I doubt anyone who wasn't as close to Dr. LaVey could have created such an insightful film. Satanis is great, for example, but it doesn't have the same intimacy. Sometimes when I watch Speak of the Devil, I feel like I'm sitting right across from Dr. LaVey.

There were perhaps a few silly moments (like the "tour of the white house" bit before showing off the Black House), but I think it's more part of it's charm than anything else.

I particularly liked it because of the keyboards. In any discussion of LaVey, there is always some reference to this and it's something that us young'ins never will get to see or experience. So it was intensely fascinating. In particular I liked the opening bit. It's so cheerful!

I also loved hearing "The Hymn of the Satanic Empire." I have the Le'rue Delashay version, but it was something to hear the lyrics with it.